Featured Filmmaker: George Lucas

BIOGRAPHY: Born in Modesto, California (a relatively conservative community), young George Lucas was enamored with two things &#Array; cars and girls. Shy and intense, he decided &#Array; despite his father's concerns &#Array; to attend film school at USC. Eventually, he hooked up with the person who would be his first mentor &#Array; Francis Coppola. Coppola took Lucas under his wing, making him an integral part of the first permutation of Coppola's Zoetrope studio. During this time, Lucas directed his first studio feature for Warner Bros, THX-1138. The film bombed, leaving Lucas embittered of the studio system and Zoetrope in dire financial straits. Lucas decided his next picture should be something more commercial, and he drew upon the cruising culture of his youth and directed his second picture, American Graffiti. A huge success, Graffiti allowed Lucas to concentrate on a follow-up closer to his heart¿ Flash Gordon. Unfortunately, rights were not available, so he started developing &#Array; with the help of producer Gary Kurtz &#Array; a unique sci-fi adventure that would hearken back to those classic serials¿ the result was Star Wars. Unfortunately, his experience directing the first Star Wars film was not terribly good, and he decided to turn the reins over to other directors on the two subsequent pictures &#Array; first to Irvin Kershner on Empire Strikes Back, then to Richard Marquand on Return of the Jedi. He also came up with the concept of and produced the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was directed by Steven Spielberg. During the '80s, Lucas turned his energies towards raising a family and producing &#Array; the height of which is the underappreciated Tucker, and the depths of which are the rightly-maligned Willow and Howard the Duck. He also produced the two Indiana Jones sequels, as well as the Young Indiana Jones TV show. In the mid-1990s, during a resurgence in the popularity of the original Star Wars trilogy, Lucas decided to refurbish (and some say tinker to the detriment of) the films. Unveiled as special editions in 1997, they raked in a ton of cash &#Array; and got Lucas primed to dive back into the Star Wars universe for a trilogy of prequels, the first of which is 1999's Episode I: The Phantom Menace and the second of which is the soon-to-open Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

MUST-SEE FILM:Star Wars: A New Hope: George hasn't directed too many films, so choosing one that stands out above the rest is pretty easy &#Array; and this is it. The first Star Wars film still stands up as a beautifully executed piece of escapist adventure &#Array; interesting characters, great performances, a wonderful villain¿ I mean, geez, this is some great stuff. While not as sophisticated (or well-paced) as Empire Strikes Back, this still stands as a prime example of diverse, and seemingly opposing, elements gelling into a rollicking whole. Is it perfect? No. And, personally, I subscribe to the theory that it's not wholly Lucas' accomplishment &#Array; it succeeds in large part due to the contributions of producer Gary Kurtz and editor Marcia Lucas. Star Wars (and, with finality, Empire) marks the end of the period when there were people around who could say "no" to Lucas (the results of which you'll see below).

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

American Graffiti: American Graffiti is just a fun film. It meanders and it tells no real story &#Array; beyond chasing girls, cruising in cars, and saying goodbye to friends before college and life take away those high school friendships. However, it has just enough energy to propel itself forward, much like the adrenaline rush that comes from over-exhaustion. With its classic wall-to-wall soundtrack &#Array; presided over via the omnipresent Wolfman Jack &#Array; and those period cars, Graffiti is a love-letter to the end of childhood innocence, all taking place on the last night before the dawn of¿ well¿ the rest of the characters' lives. It may seem like heady stuff (and my pretentious sentence does it little justice), but it's definitely worth checking out.

MISFIRE:Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace: Remember when I mentioned Lucas divesting himself of anyone who could say "no" to him? Of anyone who could say, "George, that's a really dumb idea"? Well, this is the final result of that lack of a reality-check. A meandering script, poor direction, Day-Glo special effects, and great actors acting badly just barely scratches the surface of this little ode to self-indulgence. After waiting in line for hours, it was greatly disheartening to have to sit through such an abysmal desecration of a cherished childhood franchise. Hey &#Array; that's what it felt like at the time. Just writing about this flick is making me ill, so I'll leave you with this piece of advice &#Array; stick with the original trilogy.

QUOTES: "Faster, more intense."

"It's good enough."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Despite a bit of a tendency toward putting Lucas up on a pedestal, the biography George Lucas: Mythmaker (Diane Publishing Company), by John Baxter, is an interesting read about Lucas' background and influences. If you want to know more about the failure of THX-1138, the genesis of American Graffiti and Star Wars, and a whole lot of other fun (and shocking) anecdotes, Peter Biskind's dissection of New Hollywood, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (Simon & Schuster), provides quite a few fascinating insights.